Take a step back and we can begin to grasp the interconnectedness of reality and our place in it. We have an active role to fill in putting together this God-Sized Puzzle and we can't do it alone because we are each other's missing piece.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

I've known about this film for awhile, and even added it to my Amazon Wish List. I sat motionless and with a fractured heart after watching this film last weekend. Scared Sacred produced, written, and narrated by Velcrow Ripper is an immensely moving film in search of hope during our darkest times. I highly recommend watching it; click here to watch the entire film online.

Canadian filmmaker Velcrow Ripper sets out on a 5 year journey (1999-2004) seeking out a glimmer of hope in the dark and troubled corners of our planet. He is on an anti-pilgrimage, not to the sacred places of the world but to the places which have suffered, mourned, and live with the scars of their suffering. One would think that all you would find is pain and suffering in the war torn, and scarred populace, but Velcrow does find that glimmer of the sacred peeking out through the scared. From Bhopal and Bosnia, to New York and Hiroshima at every stop in his journey the story is the same: people have died and suffered, but there IS hope. Without it these people would die. Yet I know that living in America, I might never experience anything as horrible as the people interviewed in the film.

Would I have enough hope to survive? Would I blame God for my woes? Would I find the sacred in the scared? I do not know, and that is what I found so moving about the film. It speaks on the vulnerability of humanity, and in our soft spots the sacred speaks to us, comforts us, and brings us together. On September 11, 2001, the U.S. came to a screeching halt and was hurled into the presence of the sacred. Some were angry, most were scared, but in that fear we were awakened to the soft spots that were buried and forgotten in our media bombarded, workaholic lives. My heart goes out to the suffering, yet I might never experience suffering of the same degree. The best I can offer is that whenever I come across others suffering that I face it and do what I can to ease their suffering. Even if it means taking some of their suffering upon myself. Only, I pray, I hope, I am strong enough to carry the burden.

Wow, I was just thinking about this exact subject the other day! In a bit of a different form. I was considering the faith of the Apostles of Jesus and considering how so many (I believe the count was 11) died a martyrs death refusing to denounce what they believed. As Lee Strobel says, "A person will die for something they believe in, but rarely, unless you are insane, will you die for something you know is not true." Those guys, at the point of a sword, refused to cave. Now you could say they were crazy if one or two did that, but all of them? And they were in a position to know whether what they saw was true. You can feel they were fooled by a master or led by the creator, the choice will always be yours to make. The point is they had the hope and the faith that caused them, all of them, to refuse veering from the course regardless of the suffering involved. Could I do that? I don't know. Even in the world we live in, never mind the divine, could I resist to the point of death? Would I hide an Anne Frank knowing the possible consequences? Especially if not doing so guaranteed my safety and the comfort of myself and my family? Tough questions Eruesso. Another excellent post.